A boy was offered McDonalds food if he let his martial arts instructor choke him out.
The offer was made by instructor, Steven Grant, 29, of Wales.
According to Wales Online, one of Grant’s teenage students showed up to class angry, saying that he wanted to knock another boy out. Grant responded to the situation by saying he would show him what it was like to be knocked out. The martial arts instructor then demonstrated a choke on the boy, and held onto the choke until he was unconscious. The boy had to be revived with smelling salts.
Interestingly, Grant didn’t feel the teenager learned his lesson. Shortly after the boy came to, Grant offered to buy him McDonalds if he let him choke him out again.
The teenager let him, and though he wasn’t fully knocked out, he still needed smelling salts.
The instructor also choked out a younger boy.
Grant was later arrested and pled guilty to two charges of causing bodily harm.
The incident led Judge Geraint Walters to demand an investigation into bad martial arts schools:
“Someone needs to look into how these classes are operated so the risk of this happening again is managed in a proper way,” he was quoted as saying in Wales Online.
Poor martial arts schools are no doubt a problem outside of Wales. The Jiu-Jitsu Times has reported on many poor instructors here in the United States. And while the size of the US would make a nationwide investigation of martial arts schools unreasonable, a statewide or city-wide investigation might not be a bad idea, at least for certain states or cities.
What do you think?
This is why we have the Martial Arts Teachers Association Instructors Certification Course. MATACertification.com. Earning a black belt does not make you a qualified teacher.